S. Dhanapal: A Commemorative Volume

Dhanapal is not with us now but his memory is so much alive that we cannot believe that he is not with us. My association with him starts from 1972 onwards when I was involved in the spade work of establishing the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, the first college of its kind in Kerala. He associated with me along with the other great artists like K.K. Hebbar, Prof. Ambedkar, K.G. Subramanyan, Hanumante and N.S. Bendre, in building up the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum. Later I got the opportunity of associating with him in the General Council of Central Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. He was the one who introduced me to the General Council for the first time. I am proud to say that Dhanapal was my well wisher, advisor and a close friend. In fact Dhanapal was a versatile genius. He was a sculptor of great acclaim and a teacher of great respect. He was an artist who has contributed much to the Tamil Theatre, Classical Dance, Choreography, Play writing and for many other areas of performing arts. He was very actively involved in creative works till very last days of his life. I had the opportunity to visit him along with my wife and children a few weeks before his death. He welcomed us in his studio and took keen and active interest in showing and explaining his recent works of Drawings and Paintings. In spite of the fact that he was in a disadvantageous position due to lack of mobility he took advantage of that disadvantage for making sketches. I was wondering about his mastery, power and control of lines. Yes, he died as a working artist. (Two articles are in Tamil Language).